Think Piece
Paper details:
Outlines for Thought Pieces Select issues that interest you. These papers will allow you to examine the readings. It should be under the formal written form with footnotes/endnotes.———————————————————————————————————————First, begin your paper with an introduction paragraph that states the question or questions you plan to address. Tell the reader what you are going to discuss and the historical context of the question (i.e. you may wish to state when and where exactly the events took place that you are examining and the forces behind these events.) Briefly indicatethe debate(s) that are part of your discussion. You must begin your paper with the words “In this paper, I will argue that …”Second, write three strong/clear paragraphs describing three class-based sources. Begin each paragraph with a thesis sentence (“Isaacman and Isaacman argue that the Zambezi River provided for the people of Mozambique even as it regularly flooded and subsided…” ). Then provide detail to describe the information the author uses and the arguments he/she makes. You should try to point to those issues discussed by the authors that directly address one another. So while one author may discuss an issue in a particular chapter or section of an article, you may have to look to several sections in a book or article to find the second author’s argument. Furthermore, it is often useful to delineate a series of issues that are found in each source and present them in parallel fashion in discussion of each source.Finally, in a lengthy paragraph using the readings you have discussed as well as any class discussions, lectures or videos shown in class discuss your opinion about the issues you have examined. For example you might want to examine one or all of the following questions: Discuss the strengths and failings of the sources. Do you believe the information that each author is presenting? Why or why not? What do you think about the problems these people faced and how they tried to solve these problems? Are the actions of the people logical/illogical/repugnant to you? What data might be needed to resolve the issues you have chosen (this question might help you if you are thinking of doing this topic for your term paper)? Everyone should ultimately discuss the “so what” question: where is your question and the information taking you/us? What is the big picture?
